Civil War Washington

CASE 462.—Corporal Clark Chase, Co. B, 120th New York, aged 23 years, was wounded at Cold Harbor, Virginia, May 31, 1864. Surgeon O. Evarts, 20th Indiana, reported the admission of the patient into the hospital of the 3d division, Second Corps, with a "shot wound of the left thigh, flesh; simple dressings." He was transferred to Washington, and admitted into Douglas Hospital on June 4th. Assistant Surgeon William Thomson, U. S. A., reported: "Shot fracture of right femur, lower part of middle third. The patient's condition was apparently good, his pulse full and strong. The bone was much comminuted. There was no inflammatory action. June 5th, Assistant Surgeon W. Thomson administered ether, and amputated the left thigh in the upper part of the middle third by the circular method. 8th, pyæmia developed, ushered in by a chill. 10th, chill; conjunctiva slightly yellow. 11th, hæmorrhage, to the extent of four ounces, from a muscular branch, which ceased spontaneously and did not recur. The discharge from the stump was very dirty and offensive, and breath sweetish. He died June 12, 1864. The autopsy revealed pyæmic patches in the lungs, phlebitis of femoral veins, and osteomyelitis of the femur." Dr. Thomson contributed the pathological preparation of the femoral artery to the Army Medical Museum, numbered 2509, and the lower two-thirds of the femur, numbered 3548, of the Surgical Section. He also forwarded the upper extremity of the femur (Spec. 6715, Surg. Sect.), removed post-mortem. A longitudinal section of the specimen, showing osteomyelitis, was drawn by Hospital Steward E. Stauch, and is copied in the chromo-lithograph (PLATE XXVI) opposite p. 278.